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DAILY ALERT
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Thursday, June 5, 2025 | ||
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In-Depth Issues:
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News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:
The U.S. on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and the resumption of full-scale humanitarian aid deliveries. Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Wednesday that the resolution "doesn't advance humanitarian relief - it undermines it. It ignores a working system in favor of political agendas." (New York Times) See also U.S.: "We Cannot Allow the Security Council to Reward Hamas's Intransigence" - Amb. Dorothy Shea U.S. Amb. Dorothy Shea told the UN Security Council on Wednesday: "U.S. opposition to this resolution should come as no surprise....We would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza. In recent months, Hamas has rejected numerous ceasefire proposals, including one over the weekend that would provide a pathway to end this conflict and release the remaining 58 hostages. We cannot allow the Security Council to reward Hamas's intransigence." "It is Hamas that continues to threaten Israelis and puts Palestinian civilians in Gaza in harm's way every day, using them as human shields. They have brutally suppressed those brave enough to challenge its despotic rule." "It is inexplicable that many members of this Council still refuse to acknowledge that Hamas could end this conflict tomorrow by surrendering and laying down its arms. It is unconscionable that the UN still has not labeled and sanctioned Hamas as a terrorist organization....Israel has a right to defend itself, which includes defeating Hamas and ensuring they are never again in a position to threaten Israel." (U.S. Mission to the UN) See also U.S.: "We Will Not Support any Measure that Fails to Call for Hamas to Disarm and Leave Gaza" - Secretary of State Marco Rubio The United States sent a strong message by vetoing a counterproductive UN Security Council resolution on Gaza targeting Israel. We will not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas, does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza, draws a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas, or disregards Israel's right to defend itself. Performative efforts like this resolution undermine diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire. This resolution would have only empowered Hamas to continue stealing aid and threatening civilians. We will continue supporting the delivery of aid to Gaza, without Hamas's interference, and ensure that Hamas and other terrorists have no future in Gaza. The United States will continue to stand with Israel at the UN. (U.S. State Department) Previous versions of an article titled "More than 30 killed by gunfire near U.S. aid site in Gaza" stated that Israeli troops had killed more than 30 people near a U.S. aid site. The article failed to make clear if attributing the deaths to Israel was the position of the Gaza health ministry or a fact verified by the Post. The article and headline were updated to make it clear that there was no consensus about who was responsible for the shooting and that there was a dispute over that question. While statements from Israel that it was unaware of injuries and that an initial inquiry indicated its soldiers didn't fire at civilians near the site were included in the article, the Post didn't give proper weight to Israel's denial and gave improper certitude about any Israeli role in the shootings. The early versions fell short of Washington Post standards of fairness and should not have been published in that form. (Washington Post) See also Media Blood Libel over Alleged Gaza Aid Shooting - Editorial "At least 31 Palestinians killed after Israeli forces open fire near Gaza aid distribution center, Palestinian officials say," screamed the tickers on CNN and most world media on Sunday. There were stories of a "massacre" at one of the aid distribution sites opened by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Any discerning reader would know that "Palestinian officials" is doublespeak for Hamas. That's the same Hamas that perpetrated the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust and precipitated the current war. The response of the GHF, that distributed close to six million meals in its first week of operation, was deemed less credible than the claims of Hamas. The media's irresponsibility in taking the word of a terror organization in order to create a sensational headline isn't just unprofessional, it's dangerous. The world media's tendency to assume that Israel is responsible for any atrocity that Hamas attributes to it is indicative of the coverage of the Gaza war. Most stories about destruction in Gaza now rarely mention the 58 hostages held by Hamas, let alone the Oct. 7 attack. (Jerusalem Post) Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that abandoning uranium enrichment was "100 percent" against Tehran's interests, effectively rejecting a key U.S. demand in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The Trump administration over the weekend proposed the outline of a deal that would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium, but only temporarily. Khamenei said that Iran's "response to the U.S. government's nonsense is clear....The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. They cannot do anything about this....We've told the Americans: 'What business is it of yours whether Iran pursues enrichment or not?'" (New York Times) News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:
There has been a recent uptick in drone usage by Hamas within Gaza, the IDF said Thursday after two soldiers were wounded in northern Gaza when a drone dropped a grenade on their unit. A reservist soldier serving in the area said, "They managed to smuggle drones during the ceasefire, when 600 trucks a day were coming in." (Jerusalem Post) A Hamas unit known as Sahm appears to be taking brutal action against suspected looters in Gaza, said Michael Milshtein, who heads the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center. "Everyone I speak with in Gaza talks about them. They are executing people left and right," Milshtein told the Times of Israel. A Telegram channel linked to the unit regularly publishes reports and footage of its operations. On Tuesday, the channel reported that Sahm had executed seven Gazans accused of theft and collaboration with Israel. Hamas is "a pale shadow of what it was on October 7, 2023 - but let's not be mistaken, it hasn't disappeared or vanished, not even from people's hearts," Milshtein said. (Times of Israel) Following the Israeli drone strike that killed Hizbullah operative Mohammad Ali Srour in southern Lebanon, hundreds of Hizbullah supporters marched through the village of Aita al-Shaab at his funeral, waving Hizbullah flags and chanting religious songs, just 1 km. from IDF troops stationed along the border. Residents of southern Lebanese villages, many of them Hizbullah strongholds, are gradually returning to their homes, resuming daily life, and awaiting aid and reconstruction. A Hizbullah-linked civilian group, Wa A'inu Ala al-Birr, allows the organization to operate under the guise of social aid. (Ynet News) Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis:
The Gaza War This week, the world was fed another lie: that Israeli troops deliberately opened fire on Palestinians waiting for food in Gaza. The usual chorus responded on cue - crying "massacre" and "war crime" - while much of the media once again acted as an amplifier for Hamas propaganda. The reality couldn't be more different. Not only was there no massacre, but the Israel Defense Forces were actively securing a humanitarian corridor to enable deliveries by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-Israeli initiative designed to get aid directly to Palestinian civilians. In its first full week of operation, the GHF distributed nearly 7 million meals, on average a million a day. Tens of thousands of Gazans received food safely and without incident - no Hamas middlemen, no inflated black market and no political strings. This is the first serious, large-scale aid operation that undermines Hamas's control over the people of Gaza. And Hamas is panicking. So Hamas has responded. It sent armed operatives to provoke chaos at aid sites, firing on civilians attempting to access food and deliberately manufacturing volatility. Hamas then flooded social media and compliant news outlets with false casualty counts, doctored images and fabricated narratives - all to paint Israel as the aggressor and itself as the victim. This is textbook Hamas strategy. Yes, the suffering in Gaza is real. But its cause is not Israel's military operations or efforts to rescue the hostages Hamas still holds; it's Hamas's own strategy of exploitation and terror. Those who truly care about the welfare of Palestinian civilians must support a system that bypasses Hamas altogether. That system is the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. That's why Hamas is trying to sabotage this initiative. Supporting the GHF means breaking Hamas's grip on Gaza civilians. John Spencer is chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point. Arsen Ostrovsky is CEO of the International Legal Forum. (New York Post) Hamas's rejection of U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff's latest proposal for a ceasefire and hostage exchange in Gaza shows that it is determined to secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces in order to begin replenishing and reorganizing its forces. Any agreement which threatens to reduce the main asset Hamas holds - the remaining Israeli hostages - must be rejected. Hamas sees no reason to soften or compromise its position. Deriving from its Islamist ideology, Hamas is entirely indifferent to loss of life among the residents of Gaza. It also appears to prefer the continued decimation of its own forces rather than accept a continued Israeli presence in Gaza that would make it impossible for Hamas to reorganize. The Gaza Islamists hope through manipulation of Israeli society's high sensitivity to the lives of its own civilians to increase and exacerbate existing societal divisions within Israel, and lead eventually to the cessation of Israel's war effort. A permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal, with Hamas still on its feet, would then legitimately be presented as a victory, helping recruitment and providing inspiration for Hamas and other Islamist and jihadi movements. (Spectator-UK) The EU's foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, says "Israeli strikes in Gaza go beyond what is necessary to fight Hamas." Perhaps she should head to Jerusalem and give precise instructions to the IDF on what they should be doing to eliminate the Hamas terrorist regime. She can tell them how you kill terrorists entwined into the population, hiding in tunnels beneath schools, hospitals and houses, protected by the most comprehensively booby-trapped terrain in the history of warfare, all while minimizing harm to civilians. Of course, she doesn't have a clue. Fortunately the IDF does and has been waging this hugely complex war for 19 months with a combination of fighting prowess and humanitarian restraint that no other army could match. If the EU, the UN and those governments so eager to condemn the Jewish state actually wanted to achieve peace, they would support Israel in words and actions, and condemn Hamas at every turn. The writer, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, was chairman of the UK's national crisis management committee, COBRA. (Telegraph-UK) Israel is in the midst of the second phase of a three-phase Gaza war plan that ends with the military in full control of the Strip, according to current and former officials with knowledge of the planning. Phase Two began last week and is intended to last about two months. During this time, the IDF aims to further degrade Hamas's leadership and infrastructure, take control of 75% of Gaza, move all civilians into three areas in the remaining 25%, and work with an American organization to control the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid. Phase Three involves relocating all the civilians to the Hamas-free zone, laying siege to the rest of Gaza, and completely destroying Hamas. (Washington Free Beacon) International opinion has turned against Israel. Hamas thinks nothing of using hospitals, schools or other civilian buildings to house its command posts, knowing they will be targeted by the IDF seeking to extirpate the group's command structure. Inevitably civilians are killed, but the terrorist group considers them expendable. Now, Hamas is using the efforts to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians to further its media campaign against Israel. It is no longer able to control the delivery of food because Jerusalem has cut the UN out of the loop. When the UN ran the convoys they were intercepted by Hamas which then sold the goods at marked up prices. Of course, it is appalling to see civilians die and a ceasefire deal on terms set out by the U.S. - accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas - would be the best way forward. But such an outcome is increasingly difficult to achieve when the BBC's narrative that Israel is always in the wrong permeates into the political discourse. (Telegraph-UK) The ability of Israel - or even global superpowers - to politically engineer states in the Middle East is extremely limited. Israel's war in Gaza may succeed in eliminating most of Hamas's military capabilities and expelling its leadership from Gaza - as it did with the PLO in Lebanon in 1982 - but Israeli military power cannot temper the deep-rooted hostility of the Palestinian national movement toward Zionism. The religious fervor of the Islamist Hamas has instilled in the hearts of young Gazans a desire to take revenge on their hated enemies. Without a reformed Palestinian education system, terrorism against Israel will persist wherever there are Palestinians. Many Arab states have failed to establish a monopoly on the use of force within their borders. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan all suffer from civil wars or armed militias that do not obey the central government. This has also been the fate of the two Palestinian entities: the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas-controlled Gaza. In the PA, various armed groups pursue their own agenda. And even in Gaza, Islamic Jihad and armed clans exist alongside Hamas. There is no reason to assume that "the day after" in Gaza will be much different or that the territory will be demilitarized. Only sustained Israeli military activity can enforce demilitarization. The writer is the former head of JISS (2017-2025). (Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security) According to the Laws of War and the Laws of the Sea, any vessel that attempts to breach a legally imposed maritime blockade becomes a legitimate military target. The country that imposed the blockade is thus entitled, and possibly even required, to use all necessary force to prevent the intended breach. So when climate activist Greta Thunberg and actor Liam Cunningham decided to board the latest terrorist-propaganda mission aboard the Madleen with the stated goal of breaking the maritime blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza, they and their fellows were knowingly taking their lives in their hands, and bear the sole responsibility for any outcome. In modern warfare, maritime blockades were explicitly mentioned in the 1856 Declaration of Paris Respecting Maritime Law, with more detailed requirements set out in the 1909 London Declaration on Naval Warfare. If the party that implemented the blockade has reasonable grounds to believe that a merchant vessel intends to breach the blockade, it may act to capture the vessel or even, if the vessel refuses to heed the warning and desist from an attempt to breach the blockade, attack the vessel. To act against a vessel that has the clear intention of breaching a blockade, the party that implemented the blockade does not have to wait until the blockade is actually breached. After Israel prevented the Mavi Marmara from attempting to breach the maritime blockade of Gaza in 2010, the UN Secretary-General appointed a Panel of Inquiry to examine the events. In its report, the Panel concluded "that Israel's naval blockade was legal." "There is no right...to breach a lawful blockade as a right of protest." Thunberg, Cunningham, and their friends are nothing more than useful idiots promoting the alleged right of the terrorists to "resist" (including by massacring women, children, and the elderly), undermining Israel's right to self-defense and the right to protect its citizens against genocidal terrorists. The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Antisemitism The first Molotov cocktail landed moments after the Run for Their Lives leader told the group they should feel safe to walk peacefully through the streets of Boulder, Colo. The group was advocating for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Dmitriy Reznik, 57, felt sudden and intense heat from the fire but it took him a while to understand what was happening. His wife, Natalya Reznik, 52, was keeled over and screaming. She stood in a puddle with flames rising up until Dmitriy pulled her out and laid her down on a grassy patch nearby. "Her skin was peeling and she was thirsty," Dmitriy said. Natalya remains hospitalized with second-degree burns. The Jewish couple are both Russian immigrants who met at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1996. Group co-leader Omer Shachar, 34, took note of the suspect, who was dressed as a gardener in an orange vest. "I remember thinking, a gardener on Sunday? I thought something was strange." When Shachar scrambled to pull victims from the flames, he caught his second glimpse of the attacker, who he said was stripping off his gardener disguise after accidentally setting himself on fire. "That is why he was shirtless, because his vest caught fire," Shachar said. 15 people, aged 25 to 88, were injured in the attack, the police said Wednesday. Three people were still hospitalized. (Wall Street Journal) Since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, the conditions in the U.S. for deadly antisemitic acts have grown. At rallies and on campuses, in coalition rooms and online spaces, slogans sometimes directly drawn from Hamas's terrorist manifesto have been chanted and painted on placards. When antisemitism emerges within progressive spaces, cloaked in the language of justice, too often it is met with silence and discomfort, creating echo chambers where dangerous ideas are amplified rather than confronted. I have watched progressive silence meet Jewish pain since this war began with Hamas's brutal attack on Israel. When reports emerged that Hamas had used sexual violence as a weapon of war on Oct. 7, feminist groups, globally, largely remained quiet. Movements that champion bodily autonomy - in reproductive justice and LGBTQ organizations - refused again and again to acknowledge that both Palestinians and Israelis are entitled to safety, dignity and freedom from violence. I have watched the morphing of the word "Zionist" - the basic belief in Jewish self-determination - into a slur. Jewish organizations like the one I lead, National Council of Jewish Women, have long sounded the alarm about rising antisemitism. In response, we have been ignored and told that our fear is overblown, our outrage unjustified. We have seen antisemitism dismissed as not bad enough to matter, our grief met with cynicism, our safety treated as optional. Before the attacks of the past two weeks, when we spoke out, we were told we were overreacting, not focusing on the most vulnerable populations, or even that we deserved condemnation because we supported Israel's right to exist. Our position on this war, or on Israel, does not affect how extremists perceive us. To them, we are all Jews, and that alone makes us targets for hate and violence. We need people who understand that standing against hate means standing with Jews. If you only show up for Jews in the wake of violence and not in every instance of antisemitism, you are not standing against hate. You are standing by. The writer is chief executive of the National Council of Jewish Women. (New York Times) In Boulder, Colorado, elderly Jews were torched alive in a park. They wore red T-shirts bearing the names of hostages seized by Palestinian terrorists over 600 days earlier. Some carried Israeli flags. They were attacked with a flamethrower and firebombs - the third targeted attack on American Jews in three months. At a shooting range in South Florida, I met Jews who on October 7, 2023, chose to arm themselves for the first time - a story I heard over and over as I met with members of the Jewish community, from lawyers to PR men to mums and dads. They're training. Securing homes, temples, and schools as if a war has already begun. Because this week, we learned it has. But even as Jews in America are being attacked with increasing regularity, we have not seen the birth of a "Jewish Lives Matter" campaign. No nationwide reckoning. No marches filling the streets. The continued targeting and killing of Jews does not appear to summon the same political urgency or cultural solidarity as other forms of hate. That silence is only broken by the continued death chant of "Free Palestine." Just hours before the Boulder attack, major media outlets rushed to report that Israeli tanks had opened fire on starving Palestinians at an aid distribution site in Rafah. The claims were unchecked. There were no videos. No evidence. Hours later, drone footage emerged showing a very different reality: quiet crowds, no gunfire, no chaos. Yet the tale of Israeli cruelty had already circled the globe. Increasingly, the slogan "Free Palestine" is declared while slaughtering Jews. It is shouted outside temples and adorns placards. Like "Allahu Akbar" before it, it has become the cry beneath which Jews are murdered in the street. There is no vision of coexistence behind the chant. It points toward yet another theocratic terror state. American Jews are learning what their coreligionists in Europe and in Israel have known for some time: that hatred of Jews is never defeated, never rational, and never far away. (Spectator-UK) In the Republic of Ireland you will struggle to find one person who has not converted to a strange and all-consuming faith: Israelophobia. Wherever you go, you'll see it and hear it - that swirling animus for the Jewish state. The political class speaks of little else. The media are feverishly obsessed. From every political party, every TV set, every soapbox, the cry goes out: Israel is evil! It's inescapable. It's all over Dublin. You won't walk five meters without seeing a youth wearing a keffiyeh and a look of smug self-satisfaction. The Palestinian flag flutters at Trinity College. Out in Connemara, where my parents are from, Palestinian flags fly in random fields. It feels like the Jewish state has become a Satan substitute in post-Catholic Ireland. You prove your virtue through renouncing it. When I switch on the radio, I hear an interview with a folk singer from Galway who's become a national treasure by going on a "hunger strike for Gaza." The presenter fawns over her with holy reverence: Ireland's new saints. I take a pint in a quiet bar in Clifden. A TV in the corner is whispering about genocide. It's a panel discussion about Israel's crimes against humanity. They all agree. Ireland is in the grip of a new hysteria. The country I love has fallen. Who will save it? (Spectator-UK) Iran Iran's nuclear push is deeply embedded in its regime survival strategy, regional ambitions, and ideological warfare with the West. Its nuclear program is a multifaceted tool designed to hold the world hostage, extract concessions, and aggressively advance its anti-Western and anti-Israel agenda. The nuclear program is, first and foremost, a "life insurance policy" for the clerical regime. Internally, it projects strength and legitimacy. Giving up enrichment would be perceived as a symbolic surrender, signaling weakness and potentially inviting domestic unrest. Regionally, it serves as a powerful lever for projecting influence. Iran has mastered the art of nuclear brinkmanship, using its advancements as currency in negotiations. Each step closer to weaponization is calculated to extract concessions. Diplomacy, for Tehran, is less about genuine compromise and more about stalling for time. At the core of Iran's nuclear ambition lies a revolutionary ideology steeped in enduring hostility toward the U.S. and an obsessive desire for the destruction of Israel. "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" are ingrained in Iran's political, educational, and religious institutions. Any agreement based solely on technical constraints without addressing this fundamental ideological animosity is, therefore, fragile and dangerously naive. Given Iran's deeply ingrained motivations, the U.S. and Israel must recognize that Iran will never voluntarily abandon its nuclear enrichment unless forced to do so. True denuclearization requires the wholesale dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program, not just temporary freezes or limitations. The writer, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is based in Morocco. (Jerusalem Post) Other Issues In local elections in Lebanon, the joint Amal-Hizbullah list once again swept the board across the vast majority of Shiite-majority areas. In strongholds like Nabatieh, Baalbek, and Tyre, the victory margins were massive. The joint list secured majorities in over 90% of the Shiite municipal councils. However, voter turnout was only around 37%. In the Baalbek-Hermel region, turnout plunged to 28%, with Tyre only fractionally better. This stood in sharp contrast to Maronite areas (47-50%). Thus, the Shiite "victory" appeared less a renewed, enthusiastic public mandate and more a consequence of the absence of credible, viable alternatives. The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and other state security services have recently shown a surprising assertiveness. Operations to dismantle illegal checkpoints and disrupt smuggling routes, some allegedly linked to networks protected by elements close to Hizbullah, signal a tentative reclaiming of state authority. The writer, former head of the Counterterrorism Division in the Mossad, is a researcher at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Israeli weapons played an important role in the May 7-10, 2025, conflict between India and Pakistan, highlighting the flourishing India-Israel defense partnership. The accuracy of India's Israeli-made weapons contrasted with the ineffectiveness of Pakistan's Turkish-made drones, which appear to have done little damage to Indian targets. Nitin Gokhale, a prominent Indian national-security analyst, said Israeli drones, including the precision-guided Palm 400, Harop suicide drone and radar-destroying Harpy, performed well during the conflict. Israel became a major arms supplier to India by developing a reputation for dependability in a crunch. Many Israeli weapons are on the cutting edge of technology. While India didn't establish full diplomatic relations with Israel until 1992, New Delhi sought - and received - weapons from Israel during wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971. The turning point for India-Israel defense cooperation came during the 1999 Kargil conflict when India was caught unprepared by Pakistani infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir. Israel quickly stepped up to arm India with laser-guided missiles, surveillance drones, mortars and ammunition. The writer a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. (Wall Street Journal) In a year of war, Israel's defense industry achieved a record $14.795 billion in defense exports in 2014, up 11.7% from 2023 and double the amount five years ago, the Israel Ministry of Defense reported. The proportion of Israeli defense exports to Europe jumped from 35% to 54%, due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Global demand is led by air defense systems. Israel's success in dealing with the unprecedented Iranian attacks in April and October 2024 has positioned its defense industry as a focus for growing international demand in the field. 48% of Israeli defense exports in 2024 were air defense systems. These figures do not reflect the international interest in Israel's Iron Beam laser-based air defense system. (Globes) Observations: Why It's Wrong to Call Israel's War in Gaza a "Genocide" - Norman J.W. Goda and Jeffrey Herf (Washington Post)
Norman J.W. Goda is professor of Holocaust studies at the University of Florida. Jeffrey Herf is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Maryland at College Park. Support Daily Alert Daily Alert is the work of a team of expert analysts who find the most important and timely articles from around the world on Israel, the Middle East and U.S. policy. No wonder it is read by heads of government, leading journalists, and thousands of people who want to stay on top of the news. To continue to provide this service, Daily Alert requires your support. Please take a moment to click here and make your contribution through the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. |
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